GaryVee: Leverage AI in Business Now, Before Your Competition Outflanks You | Artificial Intelligence | E416

0:00Today's episode is sponsored in part by Shopify, indeed, AT&T Business, Northwest Registered Agent, Mindstone, and Honey Love. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Start your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash profiting. Indeed helps you attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at indeed.com slash podcast. AT&T Business delivers reliable business grade connectivity that gives your team a competitive edge. Switch to AT&T Business at business.att.com. Northwest Registered Agent gives you the tools and guidance you need to build a complete business identity. Visit NorthwestRegistrateAgent.com slash YAP-free and start using free resources to build something amazing. Mindstone is an AI transformation company that helps professionals get real value from AI. Get 10% off their four-week AI competency program

1:00at experience.mindstone.com slash YAP. Honey Love makes the most advanced sports bras and shapewear on the market. Save 20% off Honey Love by going to honeylove.com slash profiting. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com slash deals. Whoever right now is the most hater, hater, hater. On AI, when AI medicine saves their daughter's life, they're gonna love AI. I don't think of this as replacing people. I think it's giving people better weapons. We are posting anywhere between 500 and 1,000 pieces of content a day. 500 a day, I thought it was a week. Damn. It was a week. My team has not gotten smaller. My team has gotten wildly more efficient with AI. As AI becomes the next massive wave, Gary is back on YAP to help us navigate it. His message isn't to panic or fight what's coming, but to leverage those tools to become more creative and adaptable. Plus, he reveals the huge business opportunity

2:01he believes is still hiding in plain sight. I don't see using AI as a deflation to one's humanity. In fact, solving the world's problems with AI seems like the most human thing one could do. 10 years from the future, where are we at? I think we could see a decline in divorce in 10 years because we've got more vulnerability and more communication. You don't see us marrying AI robots in 10 years. No, I like that. I do. People having relationships now with their AI agents verbally. I do believe that people are going to have meaningful relationships with AI. I know that's going to really trigger a lot of people. Do I think it's out of the question? No. And do I think it's even probable? For all the entrepreneurs who need it, what should they do in the next year? A lot of people don't know what to make, but if you just film everything and then clip it, you could be some of the most famous people in the world. Number one thing I want every entrepreneur to look into is... Gary, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me. I'm so happy that you are here again.

3:01And so, of course, I've been prepping for you all weekend. And when I was listening back to our first interview, something that really surprised me is that we only mentioned AI once. We mentioned chatubit in passing. Yes. And now AI has went from the side conversation to completely the main conversation. You can't go 10 minutes talking marketing and business without mentioning AI. Makes sense. I want to start there. I feel like AI has totally transformed the way that we live and work in the past two years. But you actually say that technology takes a while to really get adapted in terms of human behavior. You even said that the iPhone, we might have 10 more years of scrolling videos on our iPhone. So let's start there. Where do you think we are in the adoption cycle? And how do you think things are going to change and how long will it really take? I think we're early. I think that my point, that came with the experiences to think things would happen much sooner.

4:01We're at the point where people are using Clawed and ChatGPT and Gemini to do things that they used Google search for. But even that, I think you'd be surprised how many people still don't use any of those things in America, let alone third world countries, where second world countries are less tech-advanced societies. For example, where do you have an open Claw right now? Yes. So I think you would be flabbergasted that not this audience that listens to you. Yeah. That I would say 98% do not. And wouldn't even know what open Claw is and are right now ChatGPTing or Googling it as we speak because they're like, I asked you, you said yes, they've never heard the term, let alone start at the build up a hardest computer to run their life. Yeah. Give us some examples. What are the ways that it's actually taken a long time to adapt a technology? In the history of time? Yeah. I mean, I was screaming about e-commerce in 1996.

5:04Yeah. And most of the business friends I had didn't launch their e-commerce site until 2002 to 2004. That was almost a day. I mean, I wrote Crush It in 2009. I wrote it in 2008 about personal brand. People are acting like personal brands this new wave. That was literally, I literally wrote that book 18 years ago. Hey, you should build your brand on the internet. Yeah. Something I've been noticing. So I've been talking about AI since the beginning. I've interviewed so many people who created AI, basically. And in the last six months, especially, I've been getting so much pushback on social media. Yeah. I get a lot in the beginning, nobody was pushing back on me. And then suddenly, it just felt like everybody's trying to cancel me for talking positively about AI. It's become a political issue. It's a political issue. People are also fearful of it. Well, that's what I mean. I don't think it's necessarily the biggest platform that politicians are talking about. Yeah. It's political.

6:04Yeah. People are emotional about the extremism on both sides of what it can do beneficial, and what it will do detrimentally. People have become emotional. Yeah. Why do you think so many people who seem really smart are so fearful of AI? Well, because they're selfish. You know, when you say that question, and you're using, I think you're using knowing enough about you, you're using it from the lens up, you're using the word smart, not through an emotional intelligence lens. You're using it through the lens of like, they have some business success or they're business savvy. They're scared of losing the riches they've created. They talk about capitalism and merit and alpha and free and all these things. But when something comes along that might hurt them, they want regulation. They want not free market dynamics. They don't want to compete with it.

7:05They're scared. They're fearing for their financial wallet. And so they've decided to demonize it because they don't want it to hurt the business they built. Think about it. If you build a SaaS business and put all this money into technology, and now you're just cooking and you're about to make your bag, you're about to sell your company. Do you want to compete in a world where I can stand up a SaaS business now in fucking a week? And a 19 year old can go to it. Yeah. So the reason you're seeing this is self-interest, both on the left and the right. The kids are fearful in college, booing commencement speeches, because they're scared it's going to take a job away on this side. And on this side, people that have made a lot of money and plan on to make a lot of money, see the path where AI's going to fuck them up. And they loved capitalism and entrepreneurship when it benefited them. But they're demonizing it when it might hurt them because they're a hypocrite. Something that I'm having a lot of trouble pushing back on or finding a good counter-argument to is the environment,

8:08the water consumption, the environmental impact. Well, that's because you're not willing to contextualize it into the world. Anybody that is concerned about that, first of all, it's very early and fully understanding the environmental impact. Yeah. That's shit on the environmental impact of AI while they wear fashion every day, have hypocrisy running through their veins, who support plastic products, who, you know, lots of technology runs on a lot of electricity. Like, I mean, that's not going to be the punch line of this conversation long-term. Yeah, hopefully they figure out whatever negative impact the environment. By the way, the environmental impact is above my pay grade and above every leader's pay grade. Like, this is not figured out yet. Yeah. There's articles written that Miami would be underwater by 1980 because like, people struggle with the environmental thing, not because the left or the right is right because it's challenging to figure out what's right and what's wrong.

9:10Like, it's a very complicated issue, but people are weaponizing the environmental thing as the disguise for their actual fear, which is their financial situation. You, nor I, nor anyone. No one should be over advocating one side or the other. It's not like AI is like your sister. Yeah. This is a conversation that needs a purple conversation to your point. It's red and blue right now. And fighting AI is like fighting gravity. I love you're saying technology is undefeated. I'm defeated. I love that. Whether someone who's the most bullish about AI or the most cynical, whichever one ends up being right or wrong, I don't understand the lack of humility that people don't realize it's gonna be somewhere in the middle. There's gonna be good and bad. Whoever right now is the most hater, hater, hater on AI. When AI medicine saves their daughter's life, they're gonna love AI. Exactly. People are selfish. That's where all this is coming from. And so, you know, this is a very complicated thing

10:13to figure out what it's gonna mean in 20 years, socially, environmentally, but just the hypocrisy and environmental as your weapon when you don't shit on all the other things that are detrimental to the environment, which is many, many which you love wearing a fucking t-shirt or fucking bullshit sneakers. Like if you're gonna be consistent, be consistent. Yeah, even like agriculture is so bad for the environment, right? I mean, there's so much. Yeah. So you've got this amazing analogy of a barbell when you're kind of talking about the future of AI. It's like Jetsons versus the Flintstone. Yes. As we, you know, my big theory right now is in the next decade. Obviously, I'm smart enough to understand it's gonna be 2036 in 10 years, but I think in 2036 for all of us living right now in 2026, it's gonna feel like 2060, because I think there's so much advancement coming. Yeah. But I also think to the point you're making for the people that don't know at home, I think there's gonna be a lot of business opportunity in 1960 behavior, 2060 behavior and 1960 behavior.

11:17The rise of analog, the rise of disconnecting from technology, the going back to simpler times. I'm very bullish real life businesses and real life events and analog opportunities and disconnecting my favorite business idea I'm running through right now is standing up, drive in movie theaters, where I put towers around where Wi-Fi doesn't work while you're in this lot. Out of color. And I just think it would do very well, because I think people want a little escapism from the extremity of screen time and AI. Yeah, and I think in the future, like going on your phone will feel nostalgic. Well, yeah, I mean, I think to your point, if you're talking future stuff with VR and AR and glasses and who knows what else people are gonna invent, people are wildly naive, if they don't realize the iPad and the phone is gonna look like the pager and the CD player in a 2030 year window. What's up, young improvitors? One thing I learned from building my own business is that the scariest part of starting is definitely not coming up with the idea. That's the fun, imaginative part.

12:19The scary part is realizing, okay, now I actually need a way to sell this. When I built my online store for YAP Academy, I didn't want to spend weeks figuring out how to code websites, how to figure out payments and all that technical stuff. I didn't want to hire for that either. That's why Shopify made so much sense for me. You can get your store up and running in just a few steps, just a couple of days. And if you ever get stuck, a sidekick AI can guide you along the way. I'm also obsessed with Shop Pay because once somebody is ready to buy, you don't want any friction getting in their way. Shop Pay lets them pay in easy installments and it's one of the reasons why the buying experience on Shopify feels so seamless. If you're ready to hear of your first sale today, head over to shopify.com slash profiting to start your free trial today. That's right, start your free trial at shopify.com slash profiting. That shopify.com slash profiting. YAP Band, one of the most exciting things happening in our business is that we're building YAP Media HQ

13:22right here in Austin, the podcast capital of the world. And we are hiring like crazy in Austin. We've got five open positions based in Austin alone. And I don't have a lot of time to think about hiring. I'm building studios, I'm building an office, there's so much going on. And I don't have a recruitment agency that I work with. I feel like they're so expensive. I trust indeed sponsor jobs. I don't want to post a good job on multiple job sites. I don't have time for that either. I want to reach the right people with the right skills, the right specifications and the right location. Indeed sponsor jobs allows me to do that. Indeed sponsor jobs gives your posts more visibility, helps you connect with quality candidates. And the best part is you only pay for results. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes, less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for indeed sponsor jobs. And listeners of the show will get a $75 sponsor job credit

14:22to help give your job the premium status it deserves at nd.com slash podcast. Just go to nd.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. nd.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need a hiring hero. This is a job for indeed sponsor jobs. What's up, yeah, Gurley is this commercial is especially for you. I think we all hate wearing bras. Let's be real. But more often than not, we got to wear bras. So I personally love honey love for my bras. My favorite bra that they have is the cross flex activity bra. It's got the sport of a sports bra, but it's actually designed for all day wear. You can wear under your teeth and your t-shirts. So I can literally go from my work day to a grocery store to a hot girl walk to yoga class without ever needing to change my sports bra. It's supportive without the feeling of tight or stiffness. There's no wires poking or causing any sort of pressure points plus it hooks in the back.

15:24So I'm not fighting to pull the bra over my head. And the best part, it gives you an actual shape and separation instead of that unflattering uni boob look. Honey love is really made for women by women. So treat yourself to the most advanced bras and shapewear on the market. These are exclusive links and save 20% off honey love at honeylove.com slash profiting. That's honey love.com slash profiting. After you check out, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show by telling them that young and profiting sent to you. Experience the new standard and comfort and support with honey love and upgrade your bras ladies. So you've got a company with like 3000 something employees. You're always hiring. How has AI changed the way that you think about head count? Not much. Like my take on it is, okay, I have 25 hundred employees at VaynerEx. I'm competing with an agency that has 2500 employees as well. They are a publicly traded holding company

16:26or they're trying to sell. So they're trying to maximize their EBITDA. So they go to 1900 because they're like, well with AI we can do this. Then I'm like, but I have 2500 and I'm going to weaponize all my employees with AI too. I'm going to beat you now. That's my quick answer to the head counting. I don't think of this as replacing people. I think it's giving people better weapons. Yeah. You know, Microsoft, you know, sweet was a weapon, Excel and docs. Adobe, you know, Photoshop was a weapon. Gchat and Slack were a weapon, right? Salesforce was a weapon. These are weapons you give your employees to do more efficient, more effective work. AI I believe is going to be the most powerful one we've seen for a long time. Probably since the computer. Yeah. That was probably the biggest net shift. Maybe the internet to some degree from an information standpoint. And so to me, I'm not like, oh yay. Yeah. I'm gonna cut 700 people

17:27and we're going to be acting like 22 hundred with our 1700. That's right. The problem is I'm going to be competing with another company that has 2,200 all weaponized. So I have not been looking at as an head count and an efficiency thing. I've been looking at as an effectiveness thing. And how is our company way better at doing what we're supposed to be doing on media creative and production? Because I give them these AI tools. And so I think that's going to outflang companies that are cutting head count. Because we'll just have more humans that are also using the same tools, thus rendering us as more effective. I love that. It's like keep your army and have better weapons. That's right. I feel like that's a really good way to think about it. Like an old analogy. If we were throwing rocks and had swords and here come the guns, that's the new innovation. Like, you know, the army that decided to cut all their half their army men versus the other army that kept them and gave them all guns, that second army won that battle. That's what I plan on doing with my companies. I'm not looking to maximize my EBITDA. I'm looking to maximize my growth and that requires people and good tools.

18:28So a lot of listeners out there, they're not yet entrepreneurs. They are trying to get a job. They're 20, 30 years old. They want to enter their career and they want to think about like, how can they best prepare for AI? So talk to us about how you feel about skills versus humanity. And then also you've got this amazing analogy about the architect and the Mason. You know, I think about skills and humanity. I don't, you know, again, I'm telling you, I promise you everyone's over emotional, both ways. The people on Twitter that are Silicon Valley, like, AI is gonna solve it, no, it's not. And then on the other side, like all these kids at college booing the commencement speech, it's not gonna be that bad. Like, it's just not. Like, it's just not. And so, tools and humanity, like again, the computer, so, you know, the internet, the mobile device, these were powerful tools. You know, I know there's a lot of kids listening, but for anyone my age, like the world pre-i phone

19:29and post-i phone, totally different world, there is no Uber, there is no postmates, there is no, like there's nothing like social, like it all be different. You know, my space on your laptop at home is very different than Instagram on your phone at all times anywhere. So, this will be extreme, it will change, the world will change a lot, but I guess to answer you very simply, like, I don't see using AI as a deflation to one's humanity. Like, what you do with the AI, in fact, solving the world's problems with AI seems like the most human thing one can do. I think the big winner of the AI era is the architect, the brains and the creative, the creative soul and the strategic soul, because creative people and strategic people have always relied on a lot of employees to execute their thing. There's definitely executional things that an AI, framework can do that used to be rendered to a person. So, no question the architect gets the benefit.

20:29However, here's a big one, the Mason. And my slang term for the Mason is an employee who does a simple task that isn't doing a lot of the thinking or the creativity. I'm excited because a lot of people who right now listening who think their Mason's are actually architects and AI is the same. They just don't have a chance yet. They haven't been forced to, they're complacent. Not a chance, they've had a chance. There's freedom in the world. Yeah. They've been complacent. They've made a hundred K or 80 K or 50 K or even 200 K on just doing the task that other people have thought up or dreamed up or strategized. As that becomes less valuable, they're gonna get affected. But I'm excited because I think a lot of them have the capacity they just have not been challenged. When I was thinking about this architect Mason, something that I was thinking about was there might be some Mason work in terms of the infrastructure that supports AI. So like electricians. Yes, that for sure. In fact, to your point, the specific example of Mason

21:30like actual hands, not like, like yeah, the electricity is there a huge winner framework, like data center buildings, like actual Mason's and like carpenters, yeah, there'll be some winners but they'll be short lived. Yeah, eventually. They'll be not scale. Okay, so I want to do like a fun little quick fire on AI predictions. You are so good at predictions. I would say I'm good at observations. Just to like put it, like even if you'll watch me right now, if you actually force me right now to predict, you'll see that it's not that I'm good at predicting. It's that I watch everything quite well. I'm a very good social anthropologist. And so I see things early and I'm good at projecting how they will mature, like over time, more than like no stardomist and like this is gonna happen in the future. But anyway, none of us. Okay, I'm gonna just say one word and then you just tell me like, what are your thoughts like? 10 years from the future, where are we at? Okay, preferences. A lot of them will be set for you in the future

22:32and executed without you having to do it, AKA, agentic agents that are doing a lot of purchasing and task work for you once you set it. So your preferences will become more important in the upfront and easier to execute on the back end. Materialism. I hope it declines. I think a lot of the Gary V work I'm doing right now publicly is to get people out of materialism. I think it's creating too much envy. I think we're incredibly shallow right now as a human race. I think we value the wrong things. We value optics versus truth. We're way too caught up in keeping up with the Joneses. We're in full high school dynamics as grownups. I really struggle with materialism as a proxy to your self-worth. Yeah. And I hope it declines. Love and relationships. I would say relationships, I think in 10 years we'll have a healthier balance of proactive couples therapy.

23:35I think the stigma of therapy is continuously going away. So maybe in 10 years, every couple, even if their relationships going great, are doing therapy maintenance. So that would be, I think we'll be in a better communication place. I feel like we're heading in the right direction. Even though there's a lot of things that concern me societally in the macro, one of the things that has me very optimistic is I think people are being more thoughtful of their communication and of their therapy. And so I think we'll have more healthy relationships. And I think we could see a decline in divorce in 10 years because we've got more vulnerability and more communication, which I think people should be leaning in more into. You don't see us marrying AI robots in 10 years. No, I like that. I do. I do actually. I do believe that people are going to have meaningful relationships with AI. I know that's going to really trigger a lot of people. I'm not advocating for it. That doesn't excite me. It's a matter of factism for me. I just think it's going to be that way. And so like that Megan Fox movie,

24:36like people having relationships now with their AI agents verbally, I think that I think as robotics grow, as robots grow in society, yeah, I think you're going to get to a place in 20 years, not maybe 10, but in 20 years that are probably going to freak out and discuss a lot of people. But I just kind of feel like it is. And even for me, who's very adaptable and very non-judgy, like it's definitely a real brain fuck to think about like my granddaughter dating in 18 year old AI robot. But do I think it's out of the question? No. And do I think it's even probable? Yes. It feels like it's going to be like interracial marriage. That's right. It was so taboo. That's exactly right. And that's like 20 years after the fact. Well, that was, I wish it was only 20 years. It took hundreds of years for people to get religious and interracial marriages to where we are today. And we're still not in a great place. Plenty of people have all sorts of negative feelings about things like that. I think this will be a big one. I think humans versus robots.

25:38In fact, I think that robots and AI could actually bring the human race together. I think if you're someone who's racist, sexist, very against interracial work, I think this one's going to be so much bigger that you might give a pass. Exactly. It might be like, well, you're actually human. Now we have humans versus robots. Yeah, I really think that's right. I really, I could see that being in a hundred-year window. Totally. How society plays out. Okay, taste. I think taste will rise in a lot of ways because technology will commoditize a lot of things. But I also think some of the bullshit. Like a lot of people use taste to weaponize that they're better than. Like I've got taste you don't. And a lot of people fall for that. And I think people's self-esteem potentially will grow in the next decade as a counter to the lack of it right now. And so they will also call bullshit on taste makers. Yeah. But I also think I could see it really being very opposite. Calling bullshit on day-to-day taste makers, but valuing real taste makers even more than we do today.

26:41Yeah, because there's so much like AI. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Purpose. I think purpose will be continued to be confused. I think it'll be in the same place in 10 years. I think people incredibly confused about their purpose. I think people lack humility and simplicity to be able to, I don't believe you can open purpose's door until you fully fall in love with humility. What do you mean by that? I think purpose is a big deal. And I think purpose requires selflessness. And the people throw around the word purpose to justify their selfishness. Yeah, like this is the business that I walk because I want to make a million entrepreneurs. Yeah. I think they use it as bullshit a lot, as a facade, as a manipulation. My personal one-man's humble definition of purpose is that it's got to be very big. Yeah. And you got to like really, you know, my purpose is to eradicate fear in the world. That's way bigger than that is big. It shows up in my selfish work. V friends, if you look at those characters, is very trying to go at that. But somewhere in my 40s, I realized that that was my purpose.

27:42And I think it, I got very fortunate. Such an incredible mother. That humility has been such a foundational part of my life. Even though I have so much bravado and, you know, on me, I'm Gary Vee, but like, people that really know me. And even in my content, and even who I've showed up as the last 20 years public, I think if someone like yourself like does homework, like every time, this is the second time we've been together, like you were, most people are not very prepared when I do a podcast. You're always very prepared. Thank you. So that means you like go deeper in your work. So I assume given what you do for a living and given, you know, us doing this twice, like you know my stuff better than most people or at least in a group of people that know it. And I think for you, it's more obvious the humility and the stuff because you've spent the hours watching it. Yeah. With like, for reason. Yeah. But I think the people that really know me, my family and friends, they know it's my biggest pillar. Yeah. And I don't think Jen Pop knows that. I don't think that's the word cloud that most people think when they think Gary Vee. But I think because I have that,

28:43it was easier for me to open the door of purpose. So my worry is that society will not be in a more humble place than a decade, thus rendering purpose in the same general place that it is now, which is very few find it for real. And even fewer communicated in a way that allows others to find theirs. So I wasn't going to bring this up, but since you brought it up about your mother, I feel very connected to the fact that you've said in your work that almost everything you do is like, because you had such a good mom. Yeah. And I feel very similar about my dad. That's amazing. So I am Palestinian, my dad grew up in Palestine. Yes. He became, he would like grew up in poverty, like worse situation, he became a doctor, a surgeon, chief of surgery, how to medical center, brought us to America. I was born in America in the last of four kids. Where do your three siblings born? Yeah, they were born in America too, but like basically, all of them were. But like my parents, like my dad, you know, brought us here, pulled his whole family

29:44on the farm. He got 10,000 Palestinian kids scholarships. Like he was so generous, so amazing. And I literally feel like the reason why I wanted to be successful is because like, you want to make them proud. I just want to be in impact, being impactful like my dad. Yeah. Anytime I get an award, I'm like, oh, thanks dad. Like, I literally feel like I'm just an extension of my dad. And so, Yeah, we're two peas in the, we have a real kinship. We're about like the kids when they're little do this. Like we're the same. Yeah. It's why I'm humble when everyone's like, you're the goat or all the, you know, I live a, you live a version of Zeno, like I get flowers 24 hours a day. I just kind of passed them to tomorrow. Yeah. My dad did a lot of great things for me as well. Obviously my mom was so impactful. Yeah. But yeah, I don't think I'm big shit. And, and on top of that, in moments where I do feel pretty great, I'm like, I'm like, like, you know, I'm the, my mom was the, like I'm the pottery. Yeah. I didn't make the pottery. I'm the pottery.

30:44Yeah. I'm wondering like, what is the lesson? The reason why I didn't bring it up because I was like, well, what lesson are we trying to teach with that? Well, I think it teaches people like, hey, have the right relationship with yourself. Let's go the other way. Yeah. Let's, you want a lesson? Yeah. Want to really help someone right now? Watch this. Hey, real talk, y'all. If you think you're a piece of shit, like you very low self-esteem, like you think you're, we fuck things up, you're selfish, you're narcissistic, you're a mess, it's not all you. Someone put that in you. And you're capable of taking it out of you. Fuck your grandparents. God, you really know my shit. I'm really, I'm very humble. Thank you. Yeah. Fuck your grandparents, everyone who doesn't know what she's referring to, because I only said it once on stage and haven't made a lot of content on it. Mentioned to make me one or two other times. So many of you are angry at your parents, and you should know better because you knew your grandparents and you know your grandma fucked up your mom. So if you're so mad at your mom, why are you giving a past to Granny? Yeah. And then by the way, as someone who knew

31:45his great grandmother, my father, I've openly talked about and definitely with him, like there's certain things I don't love about the way he rolls, but I had the great luxury of knowing my grandma and she was a worse version of her than my dad. But then, may she rest in peace while I've loved for Grandma Esther is Grandma Anya, great Grandma Anya, I knew her because I was born in the old country. I was born in the USSR. My siblings were born here, but I came here and I came here with my parents, my grandma, and my great grandparents. And I spent time with my great grandparents. And I know that my grandma Esther, she had her mother and Grandma Anya, she was rough, bro. But guess what? I'm not even mad at Grandma Anya. Even though I don't know Grandma Anya's parents, I surely know how this game's played out. So the lesson in giving all the flowers to your parents, you and I are incredibly fortunate because we have the ability to give, you know, the flowers to our parents

32:46and we don't take on the accolades. The lesson to everyone who's hurting right now is do not take on your pain as you suck. Pay attention to your environment and who raised you and how it went down. Now, don't use that as excuses. Start to be a man or woman. You know, look, our parents did a great job. But the reason I'm sure I can't speak for your family situation, but when I, my mom and dad are overly embarrassed on how much love I give them publicly because they're like, there was a, yeah, we did a great job. We're proud of what we did, but you do so many things that we didn't teach you and things that we learned from you and you've taught us and you picked this up on the long the way. And that's you, bro. And there's the reverse for someone right now who yes, their parents fucked it up, but they can be the one to change it. And so that's the lesson. I love like what you're saying in terms of, like it's like, forgive your parents because of your grandparents. Forgive your grandparents because you're great. And then eventually you're like, just forgive that.

33:48You know, and just like, I love, thank you so much. Actually, one of the, you know, I'm known for many things, you know, like people make fun of me saying, you're young when you're 55, or I'm known for being good at predictions or being high energy and like ridiculous and silly and, you know, hard work, accountability, like the things I'm known for. One thing I'm not known for is the champion of forgiveness, but I'm about to be. One of the things I've made a real conscious effort with is I have a character in V friends called forgiving horn frog. And I'm developing his origin story. I'm incredibly, one thing that people don't know anything about me yet is that I have a lot of Stanley and Walt Disney in me. I'm incredibly creative from like a fantasy world, George Lucas. So I'm gonna start showing that part of me in this next chapter. You know, train knows it because he sits in films all my creative sessions for three days at my parents' house with my comic book team where I literally invent these stories. Story like, invent. I've decided that I'm gonna really focus on forgiving horn frog

34:51because I want forgiveness to be cool. Yeah. I am very passionate about forgiveness. I believe forgiveness is the ultimate strength. I believe most people right now don't want to forgive people because they think it's a pass for the other person that did wrong without realizing it's the freedom executor of them. Yes. It's getting that pain out finally. They don't see it. Yeah. It's reverse. They think it's good for someone that did horrible. It actually holds them back. Correct. So I plan on doing a lot of content of forgiveness. I admire people that are able to forgive in the face of clear, very negative things that that person did to them. I admire that person. Yeah. And I love what you're doing with V friends. To me, this is like your legacy to make sure that like, even when you're gone, like children are gonna grow up with the right moral frame. In the biggest way. Thank you. When I die, please God be another 50 years. As long as I can make it to 85 and higher. If as long as I have 35 years.

35:52Under 20 years. Yes. I want 90. I'm very big on getting to 99 or 100. But if I can get to 85, God willing. I do believe that when the announcement comes out, it will say V friends creator Gary Vaynerchuk has died at the age of 87. Like as long as I get to 85, when I get 35 years of building this intellectual property, I think I'm gonna build a big ass fucking thing. What's up, young in profitors. One thing I learned from building my own business is that the scariest part of starting is definitely not coming up with the idea. That's the fun, imaginative part. The scary part is realizing, okay, now I actually need a way to sell this. When I built my online store for YAP Academy, I didn't want to spend weeks figuring out how to code websites, how to figure out payments and all that technical stuff. I didn't want to hire for that either. That's why Shopify made so much sense for me. You can get your store up and running in just a few steps, just a couple of days. And if you ever get stuck, Sidekick AI can guide you along the way.

36:52I'm also obsessed with Shop Pay because once somebody is ready to buy, you don't want any friction getting in their way. Shop Pay lets them pay in easy installments and it's one of the reasons why the buying experience on Shopify feels so seamless. If you're ready to hear. Of your first sale today, head over to shopify.com slash profiting to start your free trial today. That's right, start your free trial at shopify.com slash profiting. That shopify.com slash profiting. YAP band, one of the most exciting things happening in our business is that we're building YAP media HQ right here in Austin, the podcast capital of the world. And we are hiring like crazy in Austin. We've got five open positions based in Austin alone. And I don't have a lot of time to think about hiring. I'm building studios, I'm building an office. There's so much going on. And I don't have a recruitment agency that I work with. I feel like they're so expensive. I trust indeed sponsor jobs. I don't want to post a good job on multiple job sites.

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39:55After you check out, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show by telling them that young and profiting sent to you. Experience the new standard and comfort and support with honey love and upgrade your bras ladies. Okay, let's move on to social media. So the last time we spent like an hour just talking about social graph to interest, to the graph and it was kind of like, it was happening, but now we're really living in it. And I think for me, one of the things that's really changed in terms of the way that we operate at YAP Media is the publishing process. It is totally different. It used to be that like we've really polished, you know, a real, we put B roll and we, the team picks it manually and then we put it up and it flops or doesn't and we move on. Talk to us about the new way that we should think about the publishing process. Well, I can speak for my Gary V brand. Today Gary at Gary V at a new handle I stood up this weekend at Funny V at FUNNYBE.

40:57Get at Gary the operator, you know, at all these hundred plus handles I have across these 10 platforms linked in YouTube shorts, TikTok, Snapchat Spotlight. We are posting anywhere between 500 and 1,000 pieces of content a day. Wow. A day. 500 a day, I thought it was a week. Damn. It was a week. It was a week. This 500 a day is probably a 60 day phenomenon. We've honest art back to what I said earlier. My team has not gotten smaller. My team has gotten wildly more efficient with AI. You know, between my open clause and between all the, what we basically, we will fully ingest this entire video and it will go through a process of clipping the AI will figure it out. You know, the team will do the 15% strategy up front. The AI will do 80% of the manual work and the team will do the last 5% on post editing.

41:59You know, what the AI created off of the rules we gave it through our lenses, which we call our tasks. And that's where that. I love this quote from you. It's like the intoxication of the merit of a post. Take us through this idea. How do you think of it? The fact that you could be just starting. Yep. No experience. Never done this before. That's right. You can compete with somebody who's been doing it for 30 years and who has a million, like a million, two million, followers and you can go viral today and make up for all that lost time. That's right. And viral is just the beginning of the process. A lot of people go viral and nothing happens. It's that viral post or that great post can start the process of you getting really serious about this and going. Let's use us. When did you start kind of gaining traction publicly? What year? Eight years ago. 2018. 2018. I started gaining traction publicly in 2007. Okay. I started one of our team in 2006. I would say, oh, seven is when I got traction.

43:00So let's talk about us. I've had traction for 19 years. You've had traction for eight years and Carol or Jerome or Joaquil or Ricardo or Sally Pants McGee right now, day one. Mm-hmm. Can literally get bigger than both of us in the public domain. Yeah. And it's happened. In it, of course, in a much faster time. And I think that's intoxicating. And it should motivate and inspire everyone to get off their ass, get over themselves with their insecurities, whether it's visual, whether it's emotional, whether, you know, so many people don't make content because they don't like the way they look. So many people don't make content because they're insecure. And they think everyone's going to think they're dumb or silly. A lot of people are too cool for school. They want to make content about Star Wars, but they're like a heart rob and they don't want to go to the real place. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I mean, I think there's never been more merit, never more opportunity, never an easier way to make $100,000 a year than today. That is remarkable, but it's not just one viral post, right?

44:02You can get four million views. Yeah, you have to be incredibly consistent, as you know, as I know, there's been people that have had flash in the pans. Yeah. There's people that get hotter later. You know, you look at Mel Robbins' career. I've been there the whole time with her. You know, I watched her get a little bump, then get cold, then stand up a chance. Last two years. Exactly. And so like, that's fun. That's, you know, that's, I mean, I'll be very honest with you, I myself feel like 2027 is going to be a huge year for me. I am focused, unlike I have, I've not been focused on my personal brand for seven years. I would say since COVID, I've been more focused on my businesses than my personal brand. I am looking to get more focused on my personal brand in 27 because I feel like I've got really good foundations on the business and I plan on being hotter than ever next year. Yeah, something that I don't hear you talk about when it comes to like, Meredith Post is trial reels. Yes. Now, I am, I have a really, I'm one of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn. That's where I started.

45:02I'm being on podcasts. I really started growing my YouTube last couple of years. It's doing really well. But Instagram has been so hard for me. And it's because it's, I have a very old account. I started it so long ago. And there's all this baggage. That's, that's true. Well, let me try to explain. So I feel like my feed has a multiple Palestinian. So I've been shadow band before and stuff. So it's like, I feel like my feed has, has baggage. However, I've started leaning into trial reels and we're skyrocket. Like I got 20,000 followers in two weeks and we're getting millions of views through trial reels. So yes. You've answered my question. It's not because it's an old account. It's not because it's baggage. It's not because you're Palestinian. I'm being dead fucking serious with you. It's because you weren't good enough and now you're getting better. Yeah. Trial reels is, I mean, I don't talk about it because I'm like, it's like, it's almost like oxygen. Yeah. Of course trial reels. Of course make as much content as possible. You become a better strategist. Miss, is it lost on you that Palestinian

46:02and Israeli things are hotter and more political than ever now? It's not, it's not lost on me. So then what happened 19 months ago when it was not as, you've gotten better as an executor. And that's why you're growing. Instagram is, you know, every platform is different. You, when you get serious about LinkedIn. Eight years ago. No shit you did better on LinkedIn. Yeah. You got in early, you know, as also one of the most follow people on LinkedIn, you, you understood there was something there. People still listening don't think LinkedIn is like the other social networks. So you outflanked everyone. You weren't outflanking people on Instagram. Exactly. Yeah, I couldn't compete. You know, people would love to come up with any excuse, you know, like whether it's political, whether it's like, oh, it's an old account. So the algorithm is like, it's that you're not good enough. Yeah. Now I agree. You're right. We've got so much better. And AI is better at picking hooks than we are. And we don't have to overproduce. We just test it and keep milking. You become a better operator.

47:03And that's why it's happening. And now what I want for you, because I'd love for you to win, is I want you to be that same person on Snapchat spotlight. And I want you to be that same person on Facebook classic. And I want you to be that same person on threads. And I want you to be that same person on Twitter. I am one of the only people on Earth on Earth that has over a million followers on all 10 platforms. In fact, I think I'm one of like five. Yeah, I'm not. Because most people don't go as far from LinkedIn to Snapchat and everything in between. I mean, most people don't even know what Snapchat spotlight is. And so that's what keeps me at the top of the game. It's not because I was there first. It's not because of momentum. It's because I'm a psycho. I want to be the best in the world at making content for every platform. And that's that. I want to talk about your hard lines. One of the things that I love about you is that you've got really consistent messaging. When I'm doing like courses and I'm talking about, you know, we know Gary V. Staines for kindness. Like you are so consistent about your messaging. So it's 2026 AI has taken over. And I want you to either defend your hard lines

48:03or let me know if it's not a hard line anymore. Does that sound good? Sounds fun. Hard line. Stop giving a fuck about what other people think. But sometimes people are right. Feedback is important. Customer feedback is important. Employee feedback is important. And you also talk about humility. So is this still a hard line for you? I'm talking about self worth. Getting feedback, I only listen to consumer feedback. You've got AI, yeah. You know, I'm just stealing all your comments, right? I'm only only counter-punching to the reality of the consumer temperament. So stop giving a fuck. To me, giving a fuck is like your identity, your self worth. Like if you're delusional about your product and no one's buying it, you will go out of business. So that is the nuance. Okay, the next hard line. If you're 36, you're a fucking child. Hard line. But people come with different baggage, right? Some people have sick parents. Some people have debt. Some people are married. So is 36, like, I feel like this line is getting harder for you.

49:03No, it's getting easier for me. You're right. No, I mean, like, in terms of like you, you're putting a lot of people in the sand. I am because here's why with modern health and with AI health, like, news, and with GLP3s coming, do you know what statins did to the world? Hala. Not really. Do you know what a statin is? For your heart? Yeah. Like, I am, I'm very healthy. Right now when I've gotten much healthier, you look at my old content, little shelf, you know, I've gotten healthier. I have very, I spend a lot of money on my health. I'm not like crazy. Like, like, trying to do all this hacking, but I'm thoughtful about it. Yeah. I'm very healthy right now. However, naturally, genetically, my LDL is high. Like, a statin is really helping me. And I'm so fortunate that my grandfather died of heart attack. I have a lot of his genetics on my mom's side. Like, that I even know, let alone have something to defend it. Yeah. If people understood what's going on with AI medicine, and with this whole GLP3, now I'm not promoting GLP1's or threes. But if this goes the way of statin,

50:06do you understand what weight does to people's health? This is a room, and then it also studying all these other benefits. Like, this is a remarkable opportunity. I'm hopeful. Now, look, five years from now, something may pop up where it's a negative benefit. I don't know. I'm definitely not a scientist or a medical professional. Here's where I'm going with hardline on 36. I believe if you're 36 today, you're gonna live to 100. Most people, sure, someone could die of stroke. And to your point, of course, people have sick parents. Here's where the confusion is. When I say 36 year baby, I'm not saying to be complacent. Yeah, or like don't work. Or like chill on the couch. I'm the most intense fucker you know. I'm working hard, core all the time. I'm talking about don't use your age as your jail to become cynical and defeated. Yeah. So true. Anyone who's watched my content in any level of depth knows I'm not saying be lazy and be delusional and be complacent. I'm saying do not weaponize age as a mechanism

51:09to not do work. People say they're finished because they're lazy. Yep. Not the other way around. I totally. People are completely convoluting what I'm saying for their benefit of non-action. Okay, next hardline. This one I think you might change. Document don't create. Now with AI, everybody can make unlimited content is getting easier to do content packaging, matter so much or thumbnail and your hook and all that. So is it really document hardline document don't create? Now here's why. Okay, it's also nuanced. When I said that saying in my office that went such a ballistic viral for me and helped so many, I was making a point that I continue to make today. A lot of people don't know what to make, but if you just film everything and then clip it, you could be some of the most famous people in the world. Live streamers that clip all day are just documenting don't create. Now it was encounter to everyone doing

52:10over analyzing create. Yes. The answer is document to your point, I'll tweak it. So it's very clear everyone. Document and create. Mm-hmm. But at the time I said document don't create everyone was just creating. Yeah. And spending a lot of money, time and effort to miss 99% of the time. Yeah, long form, the way that I think about long form has like completely changed where now like even in this interview, I'm like trying to bake in viral mode and I'm trying to bake in the hopes to be intentional. That was what I, that is a definition of document to create. Do long form content for short form content and batter it into the production. Mm-hmm. Hardline, quantity is not debatable. That's the only one that no one could argue with, right? Quantity is not debatable. You either make 900 piece of content or you don't. Everybody tried to demonize my quantity argument over the last decade only to everyone now being there. With AI, like with everybody being able to do it, do you feel like those differentiation in terms of like this better taste story?

53:10Listen to what you're saying. Yeah. You've just told me you make more quantity now. I don't believe this. I'm trying to give other people's camera. Well, people are like, whatever anyone wants. Like, if they think that they're going to be able to compete in the attention world with one piece of content, that's quality. Because they said so. Not yourself out. Yeah. Hardline, want to be happy. Realize that everything is your fault. Look, this is a dangerous one. Requires nuance. When sometimes people hear that they get caught because a lot of people have low self-esteem and they are blaming themselves. And they think they understand what I'm saying. When it's doing is driving them into deeper depression and anxiety. Here's what I'm saying. Accountability is different than shitting on yourself. Your fault because you're capable of getting out of it. You're deciding, so I really struggle with politics because I think both sides are doing the same thing. I think they're all just scaring people. All we do is scare people. Yeah. Scared of big corporations and billionaires.

54:11Scared of immigrants. It's all, if it's the left or the right, it's the same thing issue with, it's all the same thing. Everyone's scaring everyone. I just think a lot of people don't realize that they're capable. And so once you say, I'm not making money, not because immigrants are taking my job, not because billionaires aren't paying taxes, but because I, similar to why you were not winning on Instagram, you weren't good enough yet. I'm not winning because I'm not good enough yet. And I'm gonna start surrounding myself with more optimistic people. I'm gonna stop consuming bullshit. I'm gonna start going to the gym therapy, listening to positive podcasts like this, putting in more effort. Not play video games for nine hours, maybe four hours, so I have five hours to work. Like when you start going through that, you truly get out that is real life. This is not something I made up. This is the history of man. Sorry, that's the rules of society. I didn't make them up. I'm not fucking God. Go fucking work. Go fucking have joy. Go find balance. Go fucking start picking optimism instead of cynicism.

55:11So something that really inspired me, and I hope to be true, is that you've said that you believe that kindness is going to be taking over. Yes. Why do you feel that way? I believe society goes in circles. I think you can look as recently as the 1960s. If you look at the 60s in America, very contentious, similar to this, Martin Luther King, murder, Malcolm X murder, Robert Kennedy murder, JFK murder, riots, tension, racialization, blah. And then you look at the late 70s, disco. You look at the 80s fun, good times, Reagan, right? I don't believe that humans can sustain anger forever. I wouldn't already see it. You may know this, you may know this. Like you probably have people in your families that are less political than they were for. They're tired. You can't hate forever. So I think we've had a very hateful, judgmental, envious, jealous era. And I actually believe, and it doesn't seem like that right now,

56:13especially if you're Jewish or Palestinian, or if you're extreme left or right in America, it doesn't feel like it right this second. But I am who I am, and I watch everything. And I just have a funny feeling we're in the earliest days of five to 10 years from now, being a little bit more carefree, just a little lighter. In five, 10, 15 years than we are today, and that excites me. And in that lightness, since hate just had a lead role, I believe love is gonna have a lead role. And I believe people will be a little more kind. And by the way, I see it. I see it. I know a lot don't. And I know a lot of people right now are kicking the ground and like, Gary, I'm telling you, we're fatiguing a little bit collectively. Some people are more hateful. Some people listen right now, I'm being a Gary with the fuck you talking about, all my relatives are more psycho. Respect. I'm not talking about four people. I'm talking about 8.3 billion people.

57:13I sense a little early cracks. You know why I sense this? Cause I am a champion and a cheerleader for it. And I can feel the difference of the temperament in my interactions behind the scenes, my DMs, my emails. I smell it. You know why? Why? Hate is a losing game in the end. I hope it's true. It is true. It's why we're still here. The atomic bomb was invented in the fucking 40s and 50s. It has been 80 years since humans have had bombs that can wipe everybody off the face of the earth. We're here. For all the setbacks, do you know how much better your life is than your great grandmother? So much better. Do you understand as a woman of color in the United States? Like do you understand your opportunities? You're a fucking gangster. Like come on, man. Now there's stuff that's bad. We don't have to go very far. Like, we'll palestine. You crane and fucking rush. I mean, there's people, but there's people dying from all sorts of things. There's people dying from diseases right now

58:13that are gonna be eradicated in 24 months because they're like, hey, I, there's so much good. Yeah. And there's always bad. That is life. But if you choose to take a real zoom out and you do what I do for a living, watch the whole world at once. There's some early cracks for some good stuff. Amazing. Okay, last question and be super quick about it because we gotta go for all the entrepreneurs to do and hopefully I get to interview you again next year. What should they do in the next year? Number one thing I want every entrepreneur to look into is life shopping. I believe where social media was in 2010 is where life shopping is right now. That you came along later. Eight years later, I said 2010. Yeah. That you came along eight years later and still had plenty of time to have your dreams be built on top of social media. I believe live shopping. You might have been destined to be a social media creator. I don't know how good you are at selling. I'm so good at selling. I think so. I think so. I'm really good at selling. I actually could counter and tell you

59:13that I think you're more likely to make your financial dreams happen as a live selling personality than as a social media personality. And there's 18 year old you right now who hasn't started. So live social selling. If you don't know what it is, just go chat GPT or Google it, live social selling every entrepreneur that has sales DNA, should constantly going live on TikTok, whatnot, eBay live, fanatics live, and start selling live something. Yeah. A shoe and, you know, underwear, I don't fucking care, a donut, live selling is the biggest opportunity. Now, the other big opportunity for someone like you, you, every morning or evening, should go live on TikTok for an hour because the for you page just sends you new people to you. So everybody should be taking advantage of the TikTok at YP and going live for an hour and talking to the world. Oh my gosh, I have so many follow up questions, but Gary, I want to be respectful of your time. Thank you.

1:00:14This was an incredible conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcasts. Thanks, Hala. Yeah, Pam. Gary V has been an idol of mine for years. He's one of the people who made me believe that I could build a career on the internet. So getting to sit across from him again feels incredibly full circle and I'm so thankful. Gary gave us so much to think about today and I just want to highlight a few of my favorite lessons here in closing. First, one of the biggest shifts for me was the way that Gary thinks about AI inside a company. While so many businesses are looking at these tools as a reason to cut people, Gary looks at them as a way to make great people dramatically more effective. He compared AI to giving your army better weapons. If one company cuts its army in half while the other one keeps its people and equips them with the same technology, he believes the second company has the advantage that is such a different way to think about AI. So don't just ask who you can replace. Ask what your best people could accomplish if you gave them better weapons. Second, ask yourself whether you're operating like a Mason or an architect.

1:01:15And Gary's framework, the Mason executes the task while the architect comes up with the idea, the strategy and the vision. As AI gets better at execution, those higher level thinking skills become even more valuable. And I love the point that a lot of people who think their masons might actually be architects who have never been pushed to step into that role. So don't wait for AI to make your current skills less valuable. Start strengthening your creativity, judgment and strategic thinking right now. Finally, yeah, fam, pay attention to the opportunity as technology creates in the opposite direction. Gary predicts a barbell future with 2060 behavior on one side and 1960 behavior on the other. We'll have more AI and automation than ever, but we also make crave more analog experiences and real human connection. He even talked about building a drive in movie theater where the Wi-Fi doesn't work. So when you're looking for your next business idea, don't only ask what technology makes possible now. Ask what people will start craving

1:02:15because of all this new technology. As Gary said, technology is undefeated. But maybe the people who win in this next era won't be the ones who become the most automated. There'll be the ones who use technology to amplify what humans do best. Well, yeah, fam, that's all the time that we have for today. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. If you listen, learned and profited from my conversation with the one and only Gary Vaynerchuk, share this episode with somebody who's trying to figure out how to navigate this new AI era. And if you enjoyed the show, drop us a five-star rating on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. Come hang out with me on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter at Yap with Hala and LinkedIn. You can always find me at Hala Taha. Until next time, this is your host, Hala Taha, AKA the podcast princess, signing off.